8 Comments

oh well I guess the players and owners do not give a puck about the fans. it is not like the NHL is in the driver seat of American sports. no Hockey an no one cares. I understand at least more than 50% in Canada do not care about if the NHL plays or not. unlike the US they have local hockey clubs. the NHL network keeps showing past Stanley cup games. thank you for nothing. also do they understand, the owners that no hockey means very few fans are buying jerseys or other merchandise. and with the over lap of sports season before you know it it will be baseball season. March madness and Superbowl.

The owners and the players obviously don't give a crap about the fans. The most annoying thing is, is that the owners want the players to have shorter contracts, when they were the ones rushing to give out stupid contracts to Parise, Sutter, and Sindy "Ms Concussion" Crosby, right up until the lockout started!

How long was Crosby's contract? 12 years? 14 years? Everyone knows someone as prone to concussions as Crosby, won't be playing for 12 years. Just look at Lindros, and Lindros was built like a tank! (Yeah, he skated with his head down a lot more than Crosby, but still).

Jeremy Roenick's idea was good- of get rid of the crap teams that are losing money. A league without Phoenix, Columbus and Colorado (and New Jersey) would be a lot better because the moneymaking teams wouldn't have to share profit with them, and the league wouldn't have to prop them up with money because they're in a failing market.

Probie:

Oh, I wish I could LIKE yr comment a dozen times!
THe owners want the next CBA to protect them from themselves (and their absurdly long contracts.
Get rid of 5 or 6 sunbelt (aka money-losing) teams and get rid of Boston and their arrogant owner!

Bettman is hated by just about everyone in the game. Yeah, he increased the revenue by a hell of a lot, but is it 3 or 4 lockouts he's had now? It's ridiculous. His idea of expanding South has been shown to be a failure. Ditch the garbage heaps that are Phoenix, Florida, Nashville and New Jersey (the Devils because of their money problems, not success), and get back the Quebec Nordiques and the Hartford Whalers, and get a team in Seattle and/or North Toronto.

Why the league took over Phoenix and saved them, in an area that doesn't care about hockey; but let the Nordiques and Whalers move out, is a mystery. Did Bettman really think that a team would do better in Arizona than one in Quebec?

Yeah yeah yeah, I know some teams did well, but if you look at it in total, they're failures.

Parise and Suter aren't too happy about what the Wild's owner said a while back about basically not wanting to pay them what he said he would in the contract. But they aren't the minimum-salaried enforcer, who's main skill is to fight, and gets paid crap. To them, missing even one paycheck has them in danger of losing their homes.

The players want longer contracts, but those who can actually GET the longer contracts are only a few. So ALL the players, even the journeyman guys who end up out of the game in a few years because of all the damage they get protecting those "stars", have to suffer. They should also increase to minimum salary level to $750K to help these guys out.

They should also get rid of the cap floor, so teams could spend less money on players if they wanted to. Some teams struggle to meet the floor by signing players to stupid contracts just so they can meet it and end up with money problems. If there was no floor, the less well-off teams could maybe survive. I still think they should move some franchises though.

get rid of the crap teams that are losing money. A league without Phoenix, Columbus and Colorado (and New Jersey) would be a lot better because the moneymaking teams wouldn't have to share profit with them, and the league wouldn't have to prop them up with money because they're in a failing market.

Totally agree there. Get rid of Phoenix and Columbus because they are just utterly useless and draining resources. Meanwhile move Colorado back home to Quebec! One of the worst things Bettman did was the expansion into the South... Bring more Hockey teams back to Canada. You only have to look at the return of the Winnipeg Jets.